Femicide as a Direct Result of Gender Inequality in Ciudad Juárez

Due to socially constructed gender inequality enforced by the patriarchy in Ciudad Juárez many women have lost their lives to femicide. Femicide is the killing of a woman just because she is a woman.

Although violence against women has become an international public health and human rights concern over the past decade, there is still a great lack of understanding about one of its extreme manifestations, femicide. It is understood that femicide is relevant in many different contexts such as intimate partner violence, stranger violence, rape, honour and dowry practices, as well as murders associated with gang activity and political violence. The term ‘femicide’ represents the portion of female homicide victims that were murdered simply because they were a woman and where there is no coincidence in the gender of the deceased. Femicide often occurs in geographical areas where the objectification of women is widely accepted, converting these women into replaceable and expendable objects. On this premises it can be argued that femicide is a direct result of gender inequality. Furthermore, it can be argued that “femicide does not refer only to the murder of women; rather it expresses the concept of a patriarchal model and relationships of dominance.”[1] Although the women who have been murdered remain the visible face of femicide, it also refers to violence against women as a result of objectification which is often downplayed by the media where possible.

Since the string of murders began in 1993 the bodies of girls and young women have haunted Ciudad Juárez, a border town that lies across the Rio Grande from El Paso Texas. In the decade that followed more than three hundred women had been murdered with this number rising each year and many more women still missing. It is believed that this form of homicide is largely active in geographical areas such as Juárez due to the objectification and continuous supply of women who are forced to migrate to the city in search of work. These factors make women in this area seem ‘replaceable’ and therefore, ‘expendable.’

Globalisation is a contributing factor at a grass-root stage to the high levels of femicide in the area of Juárez. Within the context of globalisation it is necessary to note that “while ethnicity certainly plays a significant factor in selecting Juárez as a production site, once the factories are operating, gender plays a significant role in both obscuring and maintaining class relations in the new international division of labor”[2]. This derives from the empirical evidence that suggests women who work in these factories are seen through social constructs as ‘cheap labour.’ Therefore, they are seen as disposable, making it possible or perhaps acceptable to sexual violate and/or murder them without repercussion.

This concept of women being replacable objects in the eyes of perpetrators and the law as a result of high levels of migration to the city aid in the ever growing rates of ‘femicide’ in Ciudad Juárez. According to Alma Vucovich, president of the Mexican Congress’ Committee on Sexual Equality “Authorities haven’t cared because the victims are women and they’re poor, and many times they have no family in Juárez”[3]. With little empathy from the side of the law as they ‘other’ the victims due to expendable qualities, it is evident that as with in the last three decades little will continue to be done by the police to stop this. There is a culture of victim blaming by the police in these areas and therefore, little is done to even attempt to catch the murders and rapists of these young women. Often when a woman goes missing the police suggest to the victims families that the young girl must have run off with a boy or left to become a prostitute. Through the fabrication of these lies, the police justify their abandonment of the case even though hundreds of bodies fitting similar descriptions have been found in the past.

Research shows that it is not just the existence of the factories, but also how the factories are run which aid in the acceptance of the objectification of women in border communities. Managers of these factories claim that they mainly employ young women due to their ability to tolerate tedious work. However, it is obvious that discriminatory job classifications are used by management to justify the hiring of women for ‘unskilled’ positions and men for ‘skilled’ labour. Furthermore, it is important to note that it is not just gender inequality in the employee selection processes which aid in the objectification and in turn acceptance of femicide in the area, but also how female factory workers are treated daily by their superiors. In addition to globally recognised injustices in the workplace such as underpayment and overworking of female employees, female factory workers in Juárez also undergo regular medical exams and are often questioned about their sexual activities. In addition to this, pregnancy tests are routinely administered, birth control pills are dispensed, sanitary napkins are inspected and if a worker became pregnant they would be dismissed or harassed until they quit. [5]

In conclusion, femicide in Ciudad Juárez is a direct result of gender inequality in border communities. Although the system is not changing, the people of Juarez are beginning to rise up against this system of oppression to fight for the women they have lost and for the safety of the women still alive. This year, after the ‘Day of the Dead’ celebrations, one of the biggest Public Holidays in Mexico, thousands of protesters marched through Mexico city calling for an end to the violence against women. The demonstration was named ‘Day of the Dead Women’ and showcased one-hundred pink crosses, each with a name of one of the many victims of femicide.

le Amy Collins

References:

[1] Herrera, S. and Giró, X. (2010). Documentaries on femicide in Ciudad Juarez. Barcelona: Oficina de Promoció de la Pau i dels Drets Humans.
[2] Livingston, J. (2004). Murder in Juarez: Gender, Sexual Violence, and the Global Assembly Line. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 25(1), pp.59-76.
[3] the Guardian. (2019). The chemist, the bus drivers and 187 bodies. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/may/23/mexico [Accessed 10 May 2019].
[4] Debbie Nathan (1999) Work, Sex and Danger in Ciudad Juárez, NACLA Report on the Americas, 33:3, 24-30, DOI: 10.1080/10714839.1999.11725626
[5] Livingston, J. (2004). Murder in Juarez: Gender, Sexual Violence, and the Global Assembly Line. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 25(1), pp.59-76.